


Re-Aim

by bethanyisasleep



Category: N/A - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 18,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22321939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethanyisasleep/pseuds/bethanyisasleep
Summary: With a dark past and a can-do attitude, Marie is placed in the care of distrusting foster parents. She keeps to herself so well that her only friend is a tree. She’s the last person who should get recruited as a lethal spy, right?





	1. Chapter One

I jolt awake immediately at the sound of my bedroom door being unlocked. My skin is wet and my chest heaves up and down. It's only been nine months, but my nightmares are relentless. I rub my face and sit up just as Jane pushes the door open. She doesn't return my forced smile but politely asks, "How did you sleep?"

I cock my head to the side and grin. "Do you really care?" Jan does not find my teasing endearing. "Fine."

She nods and exits the room, leaving the door ajar.

Living here isn't so bad. Other than the multiple locks on the bedroom door and the alarm system on the window, I'm mostly free to do as I please. I can't really say I blame Jane and Terry for the extra precautions. At least they were nice enough to foster someone with a file like mine.

I grab some clothes and head to the bathroom to wash off last night's nightmare. The hot water pours over me and gives me an optimistic vibe for the day ahead. I quickly wash my hair and body, wanting to get outside as quickly as possible. After I'm dressed, I grab my bad and head for the front door. I call out a, "Be back later," as I hop out of the house with my shoes only half on.

Once I've skipped down the porch steps, life slows down. My legs slow me to a stroll and I let myself feel the warmth of the sun on my face. I walk the half mile into town and head for the park. When I reach the large tree in the back of the park, I smile at it. "Good morning, Aspen."

As the wind passes through him, he waves at me. I climb up just like I've done almost everyday since I moved here five months ago. I make myself comfortable on Aspen's thickest branch and hang my bag on a branch near me. For the first few minutes, I talk to Aspen about my nightmare. My subconscious is always coming up with new ways for dream-me to kill dream-my dad. Last night I dangled him over a cliff by holding onto his wrist. I cut off pieces of his fingers until there was no hand left at all and gravity pulled him down into an abyss. When I ask Aspen if he thinks the nightmares will end soon, he stays silent. "Yeah, that's what I thought," I say. 

The next hours I spend reading. The book I've brought with me today is about a dystopian future where people are ranked on a scale from one to ten by how dangerous they are. I'm mid-chapter when I'm pulled from my reading by someone speaking. 

"Hello up there? I'm talking to you." I look down and spot a lanky dark-haired man with high cheekbones and a coffee in one of his hands. His other hand is tucked in his pocket.

"What?" I ask when I meet his dark eyes.

"I asked you what the fuck you're doing up there," he repeats. He must not be a morning person.

"What the fuck are you doing down there?" I counter, smirking to myself and turning my attention back to my book.

He's quiet for a few minutes, leaving me to assume he's walked away. I'm proved wrong when he asks, "Would you mind if I join up there?" He sounds almost nervous to ask this. Almost. It's as if he didn't want to ask it.

"He's public property," I say of Aspen.

I keep my eyes on my book as I hear the struggle from the man as he attempts to climb the tree. A few curse words fall from his lips in the process, but he reaches a branch near mine. He sits on it and stables himself with his hands, breathing heavily from the climb. "Are you gonna make it over there?" I ask. He shoots me a look, which only amuses me more. "I think you lost your coffee." We both glance down at his coffee cup on the ground, the contents now lost in the grass.

He pushes his hand through his straight black hair and then holds it out to me. "I'm Zane."

I take one look at his sweaty hand and press my lips together. He seems mildly annoyed at my rejecting his handshake but pulls his hand away. "I'm Marie." I gesture to the tree surrounding us. "This is Aspen."

He looks at the tree and raises an eyebrow. "You named the tree?"

"I have a name for you too, but I don't think you'd like it," I joke.

He actually half-smiles at my joke. "Did you sleep here?" he asks me.

"What? No. Did you?" 

"So you just wake up early to come hang out with... Aspen?" He glances at the tree with his eyebrow raised again.

A big breeze blows through the branches. "He says he doesn't like when you look at him like that," I say. Zane looks at me like he's over me treating Aspen like a person instead of a tree. "He's my friend."

"He can't speak," Zane snaps. He huffs and then corrects himself. "It. It can't speak."

"He's my best friend. I can hear his thoughts." I look at him innocently. He looks back with his eyebrows furrowed as if he's unsure whether or not I'm being serious.

"Can he hear your thoughts?"

"What? Of course not. Trees can't read minds," I say. "I think you might have a screw or two loose, bud."

Zane snorts and rolls his eyes. I turn back to my book again, and he stay silent as I read. 

The sun is in the middle of the sky when I finish my book. I set it on the branch my bag hangs from and stare into Aspen's branches. "How was it?" Zane asks me. I had almost forgotten he was here. Instead ignoring him - as is my first instinct - I grab the book and hand it to him. He looks down at it with distaste. "Why do I get the feeling you don't have very many friends?"

I laugh. "Why do you think I named the tree?" He smirks back at me. "You can borrow that. I'm in this tree most days, sometimes all day."

"Are you leaving?" he asks as I grab my bag and put it on my shoulders.

"Looks like it." I hang by my hands from the branch I'd been on and steady my feet on the one below it. "Aspen is feeling crowded." Before Zane can respond, I climb the rest of the way down Aspen and make my way out of the park.


	2. Chapter Two

It's been two days since I met Zane. I've lived here for five months without meeting anyone new aside from Jane and Terry. No one's ever bugged me when I'm with Aspen. Maybe Zane is new to this town too, so he didn't get the memo to leave us be. I find myself a little upset that he hasn't shown up to return my book yet. I don't know what I expected. It's not like I've ever been good at keeping friends, and Zane seems pretty closed off himself. I guess I at least expected him to bring the book back.

"If you have to use the restroom, go now." Jane's voice pulls me from my thoughts of the dark-haired boy. When I look up, she's holding up a key to let me know she's about to lock the door for the night. 

I shake my head and say, "Thanks, Jane. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

She pulls the door closed and I listen as she locks the door and disappears down the hall. I roll over to face the wall and my thoughts immediately go back to Zane. Maybe he didn't finish the book yet. That must be why he hasn't returned it yet. He may not have seemed like the friendliest guy, but he didn't strike me as a thief. He'll return my book eventually. With that hope, I drift off to dreams of my father's death.

I'm in the middle of delicately carving off my father's face when I suddenly wake up to the familiar sound of a key in a lock. When my eyes open, I'm surprised to find that it's still dark. I click my lamp on to see the clock on the wall, and the second I do the key-in-lock sound stops. Strange. The clock tells me it's quarter to midnight. Even stranger.

After being frozen on the bed for a minute, I get up and slowly make my way across the room. The doorknob is cold against my skin as I try to turn it. It's unlocked. I leave it closed and give myself a minute to think. There's no way Jane or Terry would be up at this hour unless there was an emergency. I back up to my bed and turn the lamp off. I stay seated long enough to let my eyes adjust to the darkness.

When I can see the outlines of things in the dark, I retrace my careful path to the door and open it. The hallway is empty as far as I can tell. I see a dim yellow light down the hall and almost swear I see a shadow. Praying that I'm being paranoid, I pad quietly toward the light. It's coming from the bathroom. When I reach the doorway, I see that it's just a nightlight plugged in by the sink. Feeling only slightly relieved at finding the source of the light, I turn to head back to my room.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the shadow again. I take a step backward to make sure I saw it. The outline of a person's body hides behind the shower curtain. My first reaction is fear, but what kind of murderer hides? Feeling bold, I whisper, "I can see you."

There's a hesitation before the shower curtain is barely pulled back and someone steps out. The nightlight hardly illuminates anything except the person's cheekbones. "Zane?" I hiss.

"I needed to talk to you," he says flatly.

"In the middle of the night?" He doesn't respond. I hear a particularly loud Terry snore from down the hall. "We can't talk here."

I turn and leave the bathroom. Zane follows my careful steps through the house and out the front door. By force of habit, I begin walking in the direction of town. Zane keeps pace with me, and we walk in silence for a while. Finally, I say, "Okay, Mr. We-need-to-talk, what was so important that it couldn't wait until daytime?"

He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks up at the stars as we walk. "Do you like living here?" he asks me.

I press my lips together. He must have a point. I didn't think he was the type of person to beat around the bush, though. "Yeah, I like it."

"Have you always lived here?" He's doing that thing again where he speaks like he wishes he didn't have to.

"No, I just moved here a few months ago," I tell him.

"With your parents?" He doesn't miss a beat.

"My foster parents, yeah." I decide not to give him all of the details.

As if he can tell that I'm omitting parts of the story, he asks, "Where are your real parents?"

I sigh. "I never knew my mom. I think she might've left when I was a baby or something."

"And your dad?" he asks before I can finish.

I clear my throat. "He's dead," I say.

We walk a few more steps in silence. "You killed him, didn't you?" 

My feet stop moving and my head snaps up. Zane's stopped too, but he doesn't meet my eyes. I narrow my eyes at him. "Who are you? What is this?" Zane smirks. He actually fucking smirks. "Is this some kind of sick joke? He was murdered."

"Yeah," Zane scoffs. "Marie, you need to come with me. We're getting out of here."

"What? No." 

He rolls his eyes and pulls a gun out from behind his back, pointing it directly at me. "You're coming with me."

My pulse jumps, and I don't know how I manage to think straight. "You won't shoot that here," I say. "There's no way either of us get out of the mess you'd cause firing a gun in town."

"You wanna bet?" Zane says, his tone menacing. He tuns ever so slightly and pulls the trigger.

I swear my heart stops, but the bullet never hits me. It shatters glass behind me and an alarm begins to go off. Sirens can be heard already and they're not too far away. "Fuck," Zane and I hiss at the same time.

"Leave it to you to shoot a fucking bank," I hiss. "Come on."

He follows me as I duck through an alley. We quickly head up a different street about half a block. That's when I see the big, red house that I always pass on my way to the convenience store. I open the door to their covered porch and Zane follows me inside. 

I lay down on the floor, and Zane does the same. We make blank eye contact as we attempt to silently catch our breath. The sound of the sirens grows louder. I shut my eyes until I hear the sirens start to get quieter again as they keep driving past the house. Zane peeks out the window. "They're at the bank I think. I can sort of see their lights through the buildings."

"We have to lay low until their gone," I suggest. Zane nods and lays back down next to me.


	3. Chapter Three

I wake up the second Zane touches me. He must've rolled toward me so his body barely touches mine. We both fell asleep. I sit up and look out the window. It's still dark out and there are no cop lights to be seen. With one last glance at Zane frowning in his sleep, I carefully get up and leave.

I manage to make it back into my bedroom before the sun comes up. The clock in my room tells me that it's half past three. I lay on my bed and stare at the ceiling. Who the hell is Zane? Clearly he isn't just a murderer or he would've shot me without hesitation. Where did he want to take me? Maybe he's some sort of sex trafficker. Oh, god. How did he know about my dad?

Wait. I rack my brain to try to recall the nightmare I had while sleeping on the porch. I must've had one. They come to me every night. For once I can't remember killing my father in my sleep. It must be due to the fact that Zane shot up a bank a few hours ago and distracted me from my nightly murders.

With a sigh, I roll over and try to get a little bit more sleep before morning.

I hear the key turning in the lock, waking me as it always does. Wait. The door wasn't locked. How could Jane unlock a door that isn't locked? I roll over and look at the door in confusion. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a dark book on my nightstand. It's the book I lent to Zane. I pick it up and stare at it. His message is clear. He can get into my room under the radar whenever he wants.

Jane pushes the door open, and I look up at her. "Good morning?" I say when all she does is stare at me.

"You shouldn't leave the house today," she tells me. "Someone broke into the bank last night."

I take a deep breath. "I was locked in here all night," I point out.

She presses her lips together. "Well you look like the type." With that, she disappears down the hall.

I huff and lay back down in bed. What will Aspen think if I spend all day at the house and don't visit him? I sigh and flick open the book that Zane just returned. My jaw falls when I do. That motherfucker wrote in my book. There's thin scrawl in the margins and some of the text is highlighted. I groan but read through the book again anyway.

Before I know it, the day has gone by and Jane is giving me a "last call" before locking my door. Since I didn't do anything all day, I don't feel tired. I bend my arm behind my head and stare at the ceiling, thinking about some of the notes Zane had made in the margins of my books. Wondering why he highlighted certain texts.

Maybe an hour of thinking goes by when suddenly I hear a strange buzzing noise. It sounds like it's coming from my window. I sit up but stay on the bed. As I stare out the window, I see a light flicker once or twice. When the buzzing finally stops, a shadow appears outside the glass and pushes the window up.

I roll my eyes, immediately knowing that it's Zane. He must've disarmed the alarm on the window.

He rests his elbows on the window sill when he sees that I'm already up. "You left me on that porch," he says softly.

"You pointed a gun at me and wrote in my book," I retort. I swear I almost see him smile.

"Call it square then. Let's go."

I sigh. "Where are we going?"

"If I tell you, then I have to kill you," he says seriously. "I can tell you, though, that the people who sent me after you are relentless. You will have to come with us eventually. So you can come with me now, or you can keep being difficult and they'll send someone else who will use any means necessary to bring you in." I chew on the inside of my lower lip. "You don't strike me as a stupid girl."

I scoop up my bag from the floor, shoving my book inside and walk over to the window. Zane looks up at me. "Move," I say. Zane smirks and backs away from the window. I climb carefully out of the window. Zane is still smirking at me when I turn to face him. I raise my eyebrows at him. "Well?"

"This way," he says.

I follow him across the small backyard and into the trees. We walk for a long time through the forest in silence. Occasionally he turns around to make sure I'm still behind him. As if I have somewhere else to run away to.

Walking through the woods at this time of night doesn't scare me as much as it probably should. I'm more afraid of the guy with the gun in front of me than anything potentially lurking in the darkness.

After what feels like forever, we reach a clearing just big enough to fit a dirt road. Parked in the middle of the dirt road is a silver truck. The second I see a person sitting in the driver's seat, I open my mouth but then stop myself. "I'm guessing this isn't the type of situation where I should call shotgun."

Zane doesn't respond as he opens the back door of the truck and climbs in, leaving me for the front seat. I open the door and look up at the guy behind the wheel. He looks to be a similar age to Zane, but he has sandy brown hair styled in a fohawk. He wears a loose, white tank and gray sweatpants.

I frown at him. He looks nothing like a kidnapper. He looks so normal.

"I'm sorry you had to get off meeting Zane first," he says, taking in my frown. He holds his hand out to help me into the truck, but I ignore it, climbing in by myself. "Usually new recruits deal with me because I'm a friendly face." He gives me a charming smile. When all I do is stare blankly at him, he turns his attention to driving. "Uh, I'm Leo by the way."

I turn around to look at Zane. He's laying across the backseat with his eyes closed. "Get comfortable," he says. "It's a long drive."


	4. Chapter Four

Lord knows with as light of a sleeper as I am, I get absolutely no sleep during the drive. It's a long drive. Zane passes out almost immediately. Leo tries to make small talk with me a few more times in the first hour, but I keep ignoring him. There's no music playing in the car. I keep my head leaned against the window, watching the stars go by.

As the sky starts to lighten with the morning, Leo attempt to speak to me again. "Are you hungry?" he asks.

I keep my attention out the window. "If you'd like to have a real conversation with me, let me know," I say. "I'm not interested in your small talk."

Leo runs a hand through his hair. "Okay. I'm sure you have questions about where we're going. I can only tell you so much before we get there, but I will do my best to clue you in."

Now we're talking. I look over at Leo. "Why did I get Zane instead of you if they usually send you?" I ask. Leo smiles. "What?"

"I'm just surprised that's the first question you ask," he laughs. "Well, I usually just do behind-the-scenes stuff like tech work. If I am in the field, it's usually for recruiting. Like I said, the friendly face and charm make me good for that kind of thing. Zane, on the other hand, does not usually do recruiting." I glance back at Zane, who is somehow still fast asleep with a frown set on his features. "He doesn't really do much tech work either. Anyway, he's trying to get a new merit under his belt or something. One of the requirements is that he successfully recruits someone new." I stare at him for a minute, making him laugh. "What?"

"You realize that if you had just said the last two sentences of that, you could've saved us both time?" I ask. He only keeps laughing. "So what am I being recruited for?" Please don't say sex slave. Please don't say sex slave. 

"You'll be tested and trained to be an agent." My brows pull down. "Like a spy," he explains.

"Is this a legal organization?" Leo laughs and nods. "Why me?"

He shrugs. "We keep tabs on certain people with certain backgrounds." I can tell that he calculated that answer. I contemplate pushing him to explain but decide against it.

"Leo, make a pit stop," Zane says from the backseat.

I lean my head back against the window as Leo heads for an exit. We get to a truck stop and Leo and I go inside. I glare at him when I exit and find him waiting for me. When we walk back outside, Leo climbs in the truck. Zane is sitting on the curb, smoking a cigarette. I walk over to him and lean against a light pole. 

"You owe me a new book," I tell him. I support my statement with a teasing smile.

He doesn't look up at me as he blows the smoke out of his lungs. "We aren't friends, you know?" he says. "I was pretending to be friendly to recruit you."

I'm immediately offended and fire back, "You need acting classes if you think that was being friendly." My words don't have the effect I'd hoped for. He just keeps staring into the distance. "Can I bum one?" He looks at me like he isn't sure I'm being serious, but holds his pack out to me. I take a cigarette out and toss the pack back to him. He hands me a lighter, and I inhale cautiously as I ignite the end of the cigarette.

I've never smoked before, but I want to keep what little bit of freedom I still have and this seems like the only way to do so. It doesn't burn as badly as I expected it to. I take a deeper inhale the second time. When it still doesn't burn, I decide that cigarettes must not be as dangerous as I've always been told.

Zane finishes his cigarette and flicks it a few feet away. I take one last hit from mine before tossing it and then follow him back to the truck.

"Are we close to where we're going?" I ask Leo when I we're all back in the truck.

He takes a sip from an energy drink and sighs. "Not at all." I groan and look out the window. "Usually we fly to cut down on travel time, but someone wanted to drive." He glances into his rear view mirror, but Zane doesn't respond. "Or I guess I should say he wanted me to drive."

I turn around to look at Zane. He's laying down again, now with a book in his hands. "Why did you want to drive?" I ask.

He looks up at me and then back to his book. "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm meeting someone along our route." Leo looks caught off guard. "It's neither of your guys' business," Zane clarifies.

I want to question him further, but Leo just drops it. "Here," he says as we merge onto a highway. He hands me a packaged sandwich. I mumble a thank you and stare out the window as I eat.


	5. Chapter Five

"Get up," a voice says, pulling me away from yanking teeth out of my father's mouth.

"Be nice," a second voice scolds.

I reach up and rub my eyes. When I open them, Zane and Leo are standing over me. I must've somehow passed out in the truck because I have no idea how I got into this room. It's a plain room with off-white wall panels and a white tile floor. The only thing in the room is the bed I'm laying in. I don't even see any doors. "What?" I hiss, wanting to fall back asleep.

"Get up," Zane says again. "Our boss is going to come in and speak to you shortly. You need to shower."

I frown at him. "Someone's not a morning person," I mumble.

Leo sits down next to me on the bed. Zane walks across the room. He pushes his hand against a wall panel, and it slides out of the way. "Bathroom," he identifies. In a different spot, the wall moves aside at the push of his hand again. "Closet." He leans against the wall with his arms crossed. I find myself wishing the wall behind where he's leaning would slide away and he'd fall.

Leo leans closer to me. "The General really will be more impressed if you're cleaned up," he says.

I roll my eyes and push myself off of the bed. All of the clothes in the closet are some type of black, gray, or white. I grab some clothes, trying not to wonder too much about how they know my sizes, and disappear into the bathroom to take a shower.

When I exit the bathroom after my shower, Leo and Zane are standing stiffly in front of my bed. They're eyes are focused on an older woman standing across the room. Her focus is on me.

Zane speaks in a loud, clear tone. "General, this is Liability 4770. Real name: Marie Grace Lynn."

Leo speaks next just as clearly but not quite as loud. "Marie, this is our boss, The General."

I turn to the woman and contemplate attempting a greeting or to shake her hand, but she reminds me of Miss Trunchbull from Matilda. She saves me by speaking first. "Ms. Lynn, I hope you got a good night's sleep because you will be going through multiple tests before we decide for certain if this line of work suits you. Stick with these men." She gestures to Leo and Zane. The former gives me a friendly smile while the latter gives a wicked smirk. "Until you're promoted from a liability to an agent, you aren't to go anywhere without one of them. They will be with you during your tests, and should you fail - " She looks over her shoulder at the boys. " - they will kill you themselves." When I don't speak, she turns back to me. "Your first test is a simple physical, but don't get too comfortable. They aren't all so simple. Understood?"

"Yes, General," I say.

"Good," she huffs. She turns to face the boys, but says nothing. Then she turns toward the wall, pushes the panel in so it slides out of the way, and exits the room.

Zane and Leo visibly relax. "Okay, let's go get your physical done," Zane says.

"She hasn't even had anything to eat," Leo points out. I hadn't realized it until he said it, but I actually am pretty hungry. How long did I sleep?

Zane turns to me with an intense look. "Marie, the faster we get your tests done, the faster you become an agent."

Leo rolls his eyes. "He means the faster you become an agent, the faster he can be done working your case."

Zane shoots him a glare. "I want to eat first," I say, causing Zane to groan. He storms out of the room.

"Don't mind him," Leo says. "He just wants to get back to missions with more action. Come on, I'll take you to the cafeteria."

I follow Leo out of the room. Outside of my room is a long hallway. As we walk, I turn to Leo. "How long did I sleep?" I ask him.

"Probably around twelve hours. I didn't notice exactly what time you fell asleep." He checks his watch. "It's six in the morning now."

I nod and stay silent the rest of the way down the hall. The cafeteria is at the very end of the hallway. It's plain just like the room I woke up in. It reminds me of how I imagine a prison cafeteria to look. There are a handful of people inside. None of them look up when we enter. Leo joins me as I walk along the line of food. It all looks sub par. I get what looks like meatloaf, some mashed potatoes and an apple.

We sit down at a table with our food, and Leo digs in right away. He notices me eyeing my tray of food. "It's not as bad as it looks. It gets cold really fast, so you'll want to eat it quickly. Eating it fast also helps to push past the lack of flavor," he tells me between shoveling food into his mouth.

I force myself to eat all of my food, and I'm glad I save my apple for last since it has the most flavor. It's definitely not as bad as it looks, like Leo said, and I'm thankful because I get the feeling I'll need all the nutrition and energy I can get.

Leo asks if I'm ready to go get my physical, and I nod. We walk down to the other end of the hallway to an elevator. I make sure to notice that my room and the cafeteria are on the seventh floor. Leo takes us up to the second floor. The elevator doors open to reveal a big, open room with curtain dividers. Zane is already sitting on the floor next a desk with a woman behind it. He doesn't look up from the book he's reading when we walk over.

Leo looks to the woman behind the desk. "Hey, Jess. I need a Liability physical."

Zane looks up at the sound of Leo's voice. He bends the corner of the page he's on and stands up without acknowledging me. Jess types on her computer a bit and then leads the three of us back to a hospital bed, sectioned off by a curtain. She instructs me to change into a gown and leaves us alone.

I look toward Leo and Zane. "Can you guys leave so I can change?" I ask.

Zane laughs out loud for the first time since I met him. Leo rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "We aren't supposed to leave you alone," he tells me. "And agents are supposed to trust each other and be un-phased by this sort of thing."

I glare at them. Leo turns around to face the curtain. Zane squats down and rests his elbows on his knees, staring up at me with amusement. I roll my eyes and turn away from him to get undressed.


	6. Chapter Six

My physical goes smoothly as I was sure it would. Afterward, Zane pushes for me to take another test. As much as I want to irritate him by taking my time between tests, I want to become official. The sooner I become an agent, the sooner I can get Leo and Zane off my back.

When we leave the second floor, I notice that as the floor numbers rise, the elevator descends. Have I seen any windows since I woke up here? I decide to ask Leo later when Zane isn't around.

We get to a room that is set up like an conference room. Leo and Zane sit opposite me. Zane leans his chair back and kicks his boots up onto the table. Leo organizes some papers in front of me. "There is one other new recruit right now," he tells me. "Her name is Rebecca. You guys will be doing some of your testing together. She should be here with her handler in a bit."

I nod and lean back in my chair. A few minutes later, Leo's words ring true. The door slides open, revealing a girl and a man. The girl looks kind of like me. She's smaller and her hair is darker. The man behind her looks more like an agent than Zane and Leo combined. He's easily twice my size. Probably three times Rebecca's size.

"Johnathon," Leo greets him. "I can conduct the test if you'd like." The big man nods curtly.

Rebecca takes a seat next to me. She gives me a polite smile, and I almost snort at the idea of someone being polite when we're being held hostage here. By the time I realize that I didn't smile back, she's stopped looking at me.

Leo gets started with the tests. These tests are all written. Common sense, weapons knowledge, problem solving. It isn't as hard as I thought it'd be. I finish before Rebecca does but only by a few minutes. Leo takes the tests back and looks them both over. "Good job, girls," Leo says with his charming smile. "You both passed."

"What were the scores?" I ask. Zane and Rebecca both look at me. Johnathon has been staring from the corner this whole time, so his focus doesn't shift. Zane's expression is unreadable. I only have to glance at Rebecca for a split second to know that she took my question as a challenge.

Leo clears his throat. "Rebecca, you got... 96%," he tells her with a smile. She smiles back at him and then over to Johnathon. Johnathon doesn't smile back, but nods to her. "Marie, you got 98%." Rebecca immediately stops her small celebration. I press my lips together to keep from smirking. When I look at Zane, he's doing the same thing.

Johnathon pushes himself off of the wall he's been leaning on. "Rebecca," he says sternly. She looks at each of us one last time before following Johnathon out of the room.

As soon as the door closes behind them, Zane and I burst into laughter. "What...?" Leo looks to us in confusion. Zane tips his chair too far and falls on the floor, causing the two of us to laugh harder. "What is up with you two?" When we pull ourselves together, neither of us bothers to answer Leo. He shakes his head. "Marie, are you up to another test today or do you need a break?"

I sigh, still catching my breath from my laughing fit. "I don't know. I could actually go for some lunch right about now," I admit.

Zane rolls his eyes and groans. I kick my leg under the table toward his tilting chair, knocking it out from under him. He lands on the floor defeated and stares at the ceiling. "I hope you choke on your food," he grumbles as Leo and I stand up. His comment causes me to throw my head back and cackle obnoxiously as we leave the room.

Leo and I head toward the elevator. "You seem to be in a good mood today," he notes. "I'm glad."

"Me too," I admit.

I don't know what it was about getting a higher score than Rebecca that lifted my spirits so much. The laughing fit with Michael was just icing on the cake. It made me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one who found her reactions amusing. I wonder how old she is. I'm not even quite 18 yet, and she seems much younger. Wait.

"What day is it?" I ask Leo as we take our trays of cafeteria food to a table and sit down.

He takes a bite from a piece of bread. "Uh, Saturday," he says. "It's the 8th I think. Why?"

I shake my head as I swallow my bite of meat. I think it's beef today. "I was just thinking of my birthday," I say. Leo looks at me with lowered eyebrows as he chews. "It's in a couple days is all."

He swallows his food. "You don't make a big deal about birthdays?" he asks. I shrug. "Does that mean I can't get you a present?"

My mouth slowly turns upward on one side as I process his words. "You want to get me a birthday present?"

"It's the least I could do after we dragged you here," he says. I don't say anything, and we go back to eating quietly.

When we leave the cafeteria, I dodge a question from Leo about my birthdays growing up. He catches on to my discomfort quickly and takes over the conversation with stories of his past birthdays. "Leo," i say to interrupt him. "Is this place underground?"

He raises his eyebrows at me. "You're pretty smart," he points out. "Yeah, we're underground."

I nod. "Do we ever get to go outside?" Leo purses his lips. "Like, could we go outside now maybe?"

Leo looks down the hallway. "Sure. Let's go."

He grabs my hand and heads toward the elevator. I want to pull my hand away from his, but I want to go outside. In the elevator, he presses the button for the "ground floor". We ride all the way up. When the doors open, there's just a small dirt room with a ladder on the other end. Leo lets me lead the way over to the ladder and up out of the hole in the ground.


	7. Chapter Seven

Leo sits next to me on the ground with his knees bent, leaning back on his arms. I'm laying flat on my back, spread out like an X. The ground is dry and bare, but Leo says he still can't tell me where we are exactly.

He tries to ask about my past, but I continue to shut him down. Instead he tells me about his life. He tells me that he's twenty years old and from Florida. He never knew his parents and his adopted parents have moved. Sometimes he visits the house he grew up in when the new residents aren't home. He's in the middle of telling me about his middle school bully who's still in high school when we hear a string of curse words coming from the hole in the ground a few feet away from us. As Zane's head emerges from the hole, he doesn't look at us. He only grumbles to himself, "I can't fucking believe this shit."

"Watch it," Leo hisses. "Don't cuss in front of a lady." I roll my eyes at him but smile.

"A lady?" Zane questions, standing over us and looking around the wide open space. "All I see are a couple of fucking rule breakers. What the fuck, Leo?"

"Wait, what?" I sit up and turn to Leo. "Is it against the rules for me to be out here?"

Leo presses his lips together and looks away. "Zane, look. It's not like she went very far. I bet no one's even noticed that she's gone."

Zane laughs bitterly. "Oh, they've noticed."

As if on cue, two strong men join us on the surface. I swear I almost hear Leo curse as the men hoist him to his feet and shove him toward the hole. "Go easy on him," Zane says. He says it quietly and without looking toward the men - almost as if he doesn't want them to hear his request.

"What about me?" I breathe. 

Zane looks up at me. I didn't even realize I had stood up. He gestures for me to follow him back into the facility and doesn't speak until we're in the elevator. "You'll be punished for breaking the rule," he tells me. "They'll have someone whip you. It won't be me, but I can... stay in the room... if you want."

I swallow hard. "I'm sure you'd love to see me get whipped." I mean it as a joke, but my vocal cords must be as numb as the rest of my body.

"It can't look nearly as bad as it feels," he says.

I look over at him. "You've been whipped?"

He scoffs and turns around, lifting the back of his shirt up. His tan skin is covered in a million scars. Some of them sink into his skin the tiniest bit while other's rise. Without thinking about it, I run my finger over the intricate lines.

"Will it always look like this?" I whisper.

Zane shrugs and drops his shirt. "It has for years now," he answers. "I was very rebellious when I was recruited."

The elevator doors open, and I follow him down a hallway. He leads the way into a room that is empty except for shackles that hang from the ceiling and a whip that hangs neatly on the wall. Zane stops in the middle of the room, and so do I. "Raise your arms," he instructs. He keeps his eyes locked on mine, and his gaze is so intense that I lift my arms before my brain can even register his words. His eyes break away from mine to focus on securing my wrists in the shackles.

"Don't be afraid," he says when he's done. "You can do this."

Something about my least favorite person having faith in me helps me to relax. I hear the door open, and yet another big strong man comes into view. He doesn't look at either of us as he walks to the back of the room to grab the whip. "Turn around," Zane mouths to me. When I do what he says, he rips the back of my shirt apart and unhooks my bra.

"What is your name?" the man's voice asks.

"Marie," I answer with as strong a voice as I can.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asks.

"To be whipped," I say.

"Why?" he asks.

The more questions he asks, the more nervous I get about what's coming. Maybe that's why he does it. "I broke a rule by leaving the facility when I'm just a liability," I say.

In a much less intimidating voice, the man says, "Marie, you'll be whipped 50 times for breaking the rules. Are you ready?"

I take a deep breath and nod. Seconds later the whip cracks against my back and a stifled scream escapes through my teeth. I lose count quickly as the whip burns repeatedly across my back. Soon I begin to feel something trickle down my back, but I'm unsure if it's blood or sweat. After another minute, it's all I can do to even stay conscious. 

I'm so numb physically and emotionally when it's over that the only way I know it's over is the vague outline of the man leaving the room. I have been crying the entire time, so I don't get a good last look at who he was. Zane stands in front of me. He cups his hands on either side of my face, lifting my head slightly to look at me. "Marie, can you hear me?" he ask.

Yes, I want to say. My head is swimming.

He reaches up to loosen the shackles. My knees immediately give out. "Shit," Zane hisses, just barely catching me by grabbing onto my arms. "Can you stand?" I try to nod, but my head is too heavy. He tries letting me go, but I fall into him. He sighs and ducks down to scoop me over my shoulder so my face is pressed against his back.

"Don't worry, Marie," he says softly. "I got you."


	8. Chapter Eight

I wake up slowly and drenched in sweat. There is a body perched at the foot of my bed. I have to assume it's Leo. Or maybe Zane. I quickly close my eyes, not feeling up to any talking or moving yet.

I'm laying on my side. I guess that this must hurt less than lying on my back would, but it still hurts. My back burns and stings. When I can't bear the pain any longer, I open my eyes and slowly sit up at the edge of my bed.

"Marie?" Leo says softly.

I breathe carefully and turn to look at him. "I'm hungry," I say.

"Your back needs to be cleaned before we do anything," he tells me. He stands up and holds his hands out for me.

I take a deep breath and place my hands in his to let him help me up, but I freeze when I feel the wrapping on his left pinky finger and his right pointer finger. I frown and look up at him. "What's this?" I ask.

Leo smiles nervously. "They didn't want to whip me and have me out of work for a few weeks," he explains softly. "They cut off one finger tip from each hand."

"Oh, my God," I breathe.

"It's okay," he tells me. "It's hardly comparable to getting whipped. Besides, I brought it on myself."

I swallow and drop the subject. He remains patient with me as I slowly move across the floor to the bathroom. He helps me to sit on the edge of the tub and then begins carefully washing my back with soap and water. "It looks good. Most of the cuts are scabbing - sorry," he says as I hiss at the soap getting into my cuts. "Some of them are pretty deep." He pours lukewarm water over my back to rinse the soap off and then places a towel over my back, patting it lightly.

"Marie, you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit for," Leo tells me. I watch silently as he pushes a wall panel and a cupboard pops open. He pulls out a large jar and begins spreading the contents gently over my back. "I thought Zane was nuts when he wanted to recruit you."

"What?" My head snaps up to look at him as he focuses on my wounds.

"Oh, uh, Zane picked your file," he says. "It's not as weird as it sounds. We have a whole room with files we've kept on people who might make good recruits." He puts the lid back on the jar and washes his hands. "To be honest, when he showed me your file, I didn't think you would be a good fit. I mean, I'm glad you're here now. It's just -" He shakes his head. "Never mind. You can change if you want and then I'll take you to eat."

I nod and he leaves the bathroom. I'm still wearing the jeans and ripped shirt from yesterday. I grab a large t-shirt and pair of sweatpants from the closet and change. As annoying as it is having a shadow, I'm grateful for Leo and his incredible patience with me.

He takes me to the cafeteria. I'm somehow too hungry to eat, but he persuades me to eat most of my meat and all of my apple before taking me back to my room. We lounge on my bed for a while, and in a few short minutes I can feel my boredom growing. 

"Where's Zane?" I ask him. I haven't seen him since yesterday. His name hasn't even come up today.

"I'm not sure," Leo answers pensively. "I'd guess he won't bother you until you're healed and can keep testing."

. . .

The next week passes slowly. Leo tries to spend as much time with me as he can, and I try to get rid of him as much as I can. Staring at my ceiling to pass the time is a little awkward with company. He escorts me to meals and back to my room. He helps me keep my back clean and even helps me shave my legs since it hurts too much to bend my back for that long.

After the full week, I can definitely tell that my back is beginning to heal. Aside from Leo mentioning it, I can tell when I move that the shallower cuts are done scabbing and tearing when I move too far or too quickly. I can get through almost a full shower and brush my hair now with much less pain. 

When I finish brushing my hair, I hear the door to my room open and close. I leave the bathroom and spot Leo sitting on my bed and holding a box.

"What's that?" I ask as I walk over and sit next to him.

"It's, uh..." He rubs the back of his neck nervously. "Happy birthday." He hands me the box.

"It's my birthday already?" I ask, pulling the plain white ribbon off the box. Leo smiles as I open it to reveal a silver necklace with an M on it. "Oh, Leo. It's beautiful." I lift it out of the box and watch the light shine off of it. "Thank you." I lean over and give him a hug. "Thank you. It's really beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it," he says with a proud smile. "I actually sort of got you something else, too." I raise my eyebrows and he looks away. "Well only if you want it. I, uh, was wondering if you'd want to go on a date sometime." He seems so nervous. When I don't answer in the first two seconds, he seems to get even more nervous. "It wouldn't be until after your an agent of course. I just feel like you deserve better than this place, and I'd like to take you out."

"Oh," I say. "Um, sure, Leo. When I'm an agent, we can go somewhere."

He smiles with relief. "Oh, good," he says. "Um, are you ready for breakfast?"

"I'm actually still pretty tired," I say.

"Okay. I can check on you again in a couple hours?" he offers. I nod. He stands from the bed and kisses the top of my head. "Happy birthday, Marie."


	9. Chapter Nine

"Hey, wake up," a soft voice says. I lift my head up off the pillow and when my eyes focus, I see Zane standing over me. "Leo said today was your birthday."

I roll over and sit up, rubbing my eyes. "Yeah, it is," I tell him. Zane drops a stack of books onto my bed. They're bound together with a thin rope tied in a bow. "You didn't have to get me anything."

"They aren't, like, new or anything," he mutters as I take the rope off to look through the books. They're clearly used books, and they're all classics. Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre.

"Thank you," I say.

"It's nothing," Zane says, looking away from me. "Uh, how's your back?"

I stretch my arms out in front of me. "Um, Leo says it's healing well. I haven't had him look at it yet today, though."

"I could... take a look," Zane says. "If you want."

I yawn and nod. "Yeah, that would be great," I say.

I get up and he follows me into the bathroom. I turn away from him and lift the back of my shirt up. He traces his finger over my back, and it doesn't hurt as much as I expected. "Leo's right. You are healing well," he says quietly. "You could be doing better, though."

I roll my eyes. "Better? At healing from whipping?" I question.

Zane begins spreading ointment over my back. "I just didn't think you were the weak type to just lay in bed all day," he says matter-of-fact-ly. "You could have been stretching at the least."

I roll my eyes again. Zane would try to push me to do more when my back was bleeding out. He finishes covering my back with ointment and places thick bandages over the goo. When he's done, he holds a sports bra up in front of me. "Put this on," he instructs.

"Are you nuts?" I half-laugh, turning around to face him.

He shrugs. "You have bandages covering your cuts. Besides, a sports bra won't hurt as much as a regular bra," he points out. "You're going to want it anyway because I'm taking you to the gym."

"Gym? I haven't even eaten yet," I tell him.

"Okay, fine. I will take you to eat and then we are going to the gym," he says. "Put that on or I will put it on for you." He turns and exits the bathroom.

I sigh and give in, taking my t-shirt off to put the sports bra on. The act of getting it on hurts more than wearing it does. I throw my t-shirt back on and leave the bathroom. Zane is holding up the necklace that Leo got for me. He looks up at me and drops the necklace back into the box. "Ready?"

I nod and he lets me lead the way to the cafeteria. This is the first time Zane has been my escort instead of Leo. Leo always leads me, but Zane walks next to me. Almost behind me. I feel like I have at least a little bit of independence. In the cafeteria, he immediately goes to sit down, letting me grab my food by myself.

When I sit across from him at the table, he's reading a book. "So," I say as I push my vegetables around my plate, "how long have you been here?"

"No personal questions," he responds without looking up from his book. He glances up at me, but his eyes fall behind me.

I look over my shoulder and spot Rebecca and Johnathon as they walk into the cafeteria. I assume Rebecca's been here as long as I have since we took our written exams together. She looks so lost and helpless, and I hope I don't look that way walking around this place. I turn back to Zane, but his focus has returned to his book.

"What's Rebecca's story?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "She's not my liability," he says simply.

I roll my eyes at his lack of interest in conversation and quickly eat my food. When I finish eating, Zane takes my apple stem to use as a bookmark and follows me out of the cafeteria. "Who's Gina?" Zane asks me as we walk.

The name throws me off so much that I almost stop walking, but I compose myself. "Gina was my mother's name," I tell him. He nods but doesn't say anything as we reach the elevator. "Where did you hear that name?"

Zane stares straight ahead at the elevator doors when he answers. "It was in the book you lent me when we first met." 

The only thing I've ever known about my mother is her name. That book is all I have from her. "Where is my stuff anyway?" I ask Zane.

He presses his lips together as the elevator doors open. Before us is a long gym. "I don't like to be bugged during my workout," Zane tells me as we walk into the room. "So you're on your own. Just let me know when you want to leave."

I watch as he walks over to a line of bags hanging from the ceiling and begins to wrap his hands in black tape. There's plenty of people in the gym, and even though none of them pay me any attention I quickly jump on a treadmill, not wanting to seem lost.


	10. Chapter Ten

"Marie?" I hold up a finger to signal that I need a moment. I'm in the middle of the second book Zane gave me for my birthday. All of the books are used and have Zane's highlights and margin notes throughout them. I finish the paragraph I'm on and then look up to see Leo standing by my bed. "Are you ready for your next exam?"

I sigh and set my book aside. I knew I'd have to go back to testing soon, but that doesn't make me any more excited to do so. "Let's get this over with." 

Leo smiles as I stand up. "Just remember that if you can survive being whipped, you can survive anything."

I scoff and follow him out of the room. A short elevator ride later, I take note of the fact that this is the same floor I got whipped on. The thought makes me shiver. We reach a room and Leo gestures for me to enter in front of him. "Can you wait in here for a second? I'll be right back." I frown at him. "Don't worry. This isn't against the rules."

I purse my lips and he kisses my cheek lightly before leaving me alone in the room. The room is completely empty, no furniture or weapons. I bury my hands in my pockets and lean against the wall, looking around the room. Even thought it's empty, I pray for something to occupy me until Leo returns. 

Time passes - although I'm not sure how much - and I start to get irritated with how long Leo is taking. I thought I wasn't supposed to be alone anyway. Maybe the test is to see if I can be trusted alone? I walk over to where the door had been and press the wall. Nothing happens.

I hear the buzzing of a machine and turn around. A hole has opened in the ceiling and something is being lowered into the room. I immediately recognize the knife perched just inches from the ceiling and my jaw drops. Quickly composing myself, I look away. What kind of test is this?

They went through my bag. I figured it was just left in Leo's truck. 

The official record clearly states that my father was stabbed in a home robbery gone wrong. I even stabbed myself in the arm to make it believable. Zane knew. Zane somehow knew that wasn't the real story. He asked me about it right after we met. How did he know?

A few minutes pass before a light catches my eye. I turn to see a camera perched high in the corner of the room. A small red light shines from it. I take a step toward it. "What do you want from me?" I ask it. "What is this a test for? I don't even know how to pass." When I get no answer, I groan in frustration and sit on the floor.

This is probably just some sort of test to see how I act under pressure. I'm probably not doing so well. The idea of Rebecca trying to act cool under pressure makes me laugh bitterly. 

What feels like a whole day goes by slowly. I'm laying on my back on the floor. My focus shifts back and forth from the knife to the camera. "How long am I in here for?" I ask aloud. "Until I figure out how to pass your shitty test?" The camera doesn't answer me. "With no instructions, that could take awhile."

I sigh and stare at the blank ceiling tile about me. What if I never figure it out? Would they let me die in here? Probably.


	11. Chapter Eleven

It's been ten days. I only know this because of the lines on the wall. Every time I wake up, there's a new tally on the wall. On day three I woke up to find a cup of water next to me. There was another cup of water on day six. One day nine, I was blessed with a cup of water and a single piece of bread. I ate the piece of bread in one bite and then threw it up. Aside from the malnutrition causing me fatigue, the smell of puke made it difficult to fall asleep that night.

Today is day 10. I wake up from a dream where my father is a poorly treated zoo exhibit and sit up. The fluorescent light is hard to adjust to when I first wake up. The tenth tally has been added to the wall. The camera still shines it's small red light at me. The knife still hangs from the ceiling. 

No one has come to visit me when I'm awake, and with as light a sleeper as I usually am, I'm surprised they've managed to come in and out without me noticing. I have no hints yet as to what I'm supposed to be doing. After doing absolutely nothing for the first few days, I started to pass the time by working out. I'm beginning to feel crazy in here. The red light on the camera follows me around the room, and the knife makes me paranoid.

As I lay on the floor staring at the ceiling, I slowly become aware of my body heating up and I begin sweating lightly. I frown and take my sweatshirt off. A few more minutes pass before I get up and start jogging in circles around the room. I try to keep my focus directly in front of me, but the knife taunts me into glancing at it every few steps. When I'm done running, I collapse onto the floor. I don't usually sweat this much.

I kick my shoes and socks off and lean my back against the wall. I don't know how much time passes, but I soon realize that my body isn't cooling down. Is the room temperature changing? I had assumed it was just my body temperature.

If the pattern continues, I won't get another glass of water for two days. I take my tank top off to sit in my sports bra. I thank god that I wore these thin pants as I rip them into shorts. I use one of the legs from my pants as a hair tie to keep my hair off of my neck. "Are you guys cannibals, too?" I ask the camera. "Are you gonna bake me?" My eyelids flutter closed and my breathing deepens as the hot air fills my lungs. 

My dream that night is different than the usual homicides. My father is tied to a stake, and I set him on fire. As I watch the flames engulf him, my feet start to feel cold. I look down to see flames raking up my own body. When I look back up, Zane is the one holding the match. I'm too confused by the flames making me freeze that I can't even ask him why he's done this.

I wake up in a panic and see my breath in front of my face. I don't know if it's actually freezing in here or if I'm just exaggerating the cold based off of the heat from yesterday. I sit up to get my sweatshirt, but it's gone. All of my clothes are gone. My head falls backwards, and I curse at the ceiling. 

I can't just sit here and take the cold. I get up and jog around the room. The cold floor hurts my bare feet. My teeth chatter as I attempt some push-ups. I collapse to the floor. The cold amplifies my pain, causing me to hiss through my teeth.

"You can't do this to me," I almost shout. "You can't kill me like this." I push myself to my feet and look at the camera. "Let me out of here." I can't remember at this point which corner the door was in, so I take turns pushing on all of them, praying that one of the wall panels will slide away and free me from this tundra. 

When I get to the last corner, a panel slides away. Unfortunately it's not a door. It's a drawer. All that's in it is a hammer. My first thought is to throw it at the camera. I pick it up in my hand. This can't be all that's in here. I check the drawer further for more items or a false bottom, but there's nothing. 

This can't be all that's in here.

I set the hammer back down in the drawer and begin pushing randomly at the walls, looking for anything else that might open. On the opposite wall from the drawer, a large panel moves aside to reveal a screen. I stare at it in confusion before inspecting it. On the bottom of the screen is a button. When I press it, the immediate audio makes me freeze even more than the cold.

"Just tell me what happened, Ms. Lynn." I step back to take in the picture on the screen. A young girl in an interrogation room. "I'm here to help you, Marie," Officer Jones says softly.

The girl sniffles. "A big man came into our house. He woke me up. I thought it was my dad, so I got out of bed to see what he was doing. He had a knife -" She has a bandage wrapped around her upper arm. Instinctively, my hand traces over the scar on my left arm. "He swung at me. I jumped, so he only got my arm. Then my dad -"

"Turn it off!" I scream. The girl continues telling the cop the story she'd practiced a million times. "Turn it off!"

The tape just keeps rolling. Before I know what I'm doing, I grab the hammer from the drawer and throw it at the TV. The hammer lodges right in the middle of the screen, killing the video.


	12. Chapter Twelve

I stay frozen and backed against the wall, my eyes fixated on the hammer-smashed screen. Where did they get that video? It doesn't matter where they got it. It doesn't prove anything except that I've always been a good liar.

Images of the night I killed my dad flash through my brain and I shake my head to get them out. I'm suddenly aware of my body slowly regaining heat. I flex my fingers and then look around the room. They were just trying to get me to do something. That's why they've been torturing me. I've been taking too long. I must be on the right track if they're turning the heat back on. 

I go back to searching the walls for openings. After finding a few empty compartments, I push the wall and a long skinny drawer pops out. I pull it all the way open to reveal an assortment of guns neatly placed. My eyes widen at them. I glance up at the knife that hangs from the ceiling and then turn back to the drawer. My eyes rake over the different guns until I pick up a small black handgun. 

I turn it over in my hand, admiring how shiny it is. My eyes move back up to the knife. I carefully aim the gun and am surprised at my aim when my bullet strikes the rope and the knife falls to the middle of the floor. I've kept that knife on me for forever, but now in this room it haunts me. My feet carry me toward the knife and I pick it up, turning it over and over in my hand.

That night replays over and over in my brain. I'm vaguely aware of something moving, and when I look up, there's a cardboard stand-up of my father. How on earth would they have gotten a picture of him like this? He looks exactly like he did in the days before I killed him. 

I look at the gun in my right hand and then to the knife in my left hand. "Is that what you want?" I ask the camera. "You want me to admit that I killed my dad?" I glance back at the cardboard stand up. "Yeah, I did it. Okay? I did it." I lift my gun. "I stabbed him - " I shoot the stand-up right in the middle of my father's chest. " - right there." I look back up to the camera. "I planned it. Premeditated it. I rehearsed my cover story. And I stabbed myself right here - " I flip the knife around in my hand and stab the knife into my scar. I pull the knife out and breathe deeply. " - to make my story more believable and to be less suspicious. Is that what you wanted to hear?" I sigh and drop the knife to the floor.

I stash the gun behind me in the waistband of my pants and take my hair down. I push the ripped fabric up my arm and over my stab wound. As I'm fixating the fabric over the opening, I hear more movement. When I look up, Zane is leaning against the doorway. He doesn't say anything as he watches me pick the knife back up. I wipe the blood off on my pants and then grab the gun out from behind me. I walk over to Zane and hold the weapons out to him.

He looks down at them and shakes his head. "Those are yours now," he tells me. I frown at him and he half-smiles. "Consolation prize."

"Consolation?" I question.

"Consolation as in you had to go through that," he explains. "Not as in you failed. You passed."

I scoff. "Some test." Zane's head falls as he chuckles shortly. "Where's Leo?"

"He's, uh..." He rubs the back of his neck. "He didn't want to come congratulate you because he didn't want you to be mad at him."

"Why would I be mad at him?" I ask.

Zane nods his head to the side, gesturing for me to follow him out of the room. "I don't know," he says. "I'm the one you should be mad at anyway. He wanted to smuggle your bag in for you or just leave it in his truck until you could get it yourself. I'm the one who told him we needed to turn it in."

We reach the elevator and Zane presses the button for a floor I haven't been to. "You knew I had the knife." It comes out as more of a statement than a question.

Zane shrugs. "I guessed." He reads my confused expression. "You kept the book from your mom in there. I already knew you killed your dad. I just put two and two together."

"How did you know?" I ask him. My voice comes out as almost a whisper.

"You aren't as good a liar as you think you are," Zane says with a grin. I open my mouth to ask another question, but he cuts me off as the elevator doors open. "Do you want to see how Rebecca's doing?"

"She's taking the same test right now?" I ask. Zane nods as he leads the way down the hall. "How is that possible? I figured she'd be an agent already since I had to take time off to heal."

"We like to have our new liabilities test around the same time," he explains.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Zane pushes open a door to a dimly lit room with a big window and what looks to be a control panel. Johnathon stands there with his arms crossed over his chest. He looks over at us when the door opens, shares a head nod with Zane, and then returns his focus to his liability. "Johnathon, you can go get something to eat or rest. Marie and I will be in here for a bit," Zane says.

Johnathon nods curtly and turns to leave the room. Zane pulls up two wheeled office chairs for us to sit in front of the window. On the other side of the glass, I see Rebecca. She's wearing a white t-shirt and black pants, and she's all wet. She sits in the corner of the room with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her room isn't completely empty like mine was. There's a necklace in a glass case on the wall across the room from where she sits. 

"It's one-way glass," Zane points out. "Rebecca was at a summer camp a year ago and she drowned another camper." I gape at her through the glass. "Don't make that face. You killed your dad. Premeditated."

I press my lips together. "She just so doesn't seem like the type," I say.

"Neither do you," Zane comments. "She didn't do it on purpose anyway. They were goofing off and she drowned her by accident. She got freaked out when she realized the girl was dead, so instead of coming clean, she put rocks in her swimsuit and pushed her further out into the lake." I raise my eyebrows. "The girl was wearing that necklace when she drowned. Johnathon says Rebecca made it for her."

"So how have you been torturing her?" 

"Well, we gave her the first week or so just like we did for you. Water every few days. Food every once in a while." He interrupts himself with a laugh. "She didn't throw up her bread either by the way." 

"Oh, shut up," I say, swatting his arm.

"Speaking of which..." Zane rolls his chair backwards to the table behind us and grabs a loaf of bread and a bottled water, handing them to me. "Eat slowly."

"Thank you," I say, taking them. I nibble on a piece of bread.

"She was more interesting to watch in the beginning than you were," he continues. "All you did was stare at the ceiling and sleep. She cried and begged for Johnathon to come get her." I snort.

"Did you guys change the temperature on her like you did to me?" I ask.

"No, Johnathon's been filling the room with water," Zane tells me. When I look at him with confusion, he leans forward and flicks a switch on the panel in front of us.

The room begins to fill with water and Rebecca looks panicked. "No, no, no, no, no, no," she repeats over and over. She stands up and the water quickly moves up her legs. "Johnathon! Anyone! Please help me!"

I laugh. "Why the fuck are you laughing?" Zane asks me, his own face adorned with an amused smile.

"I don't know," I laugh, causing him to join me.

As the water picks Rebecca's feet up off of the floor, I stop laughing. She's stopped screaming as she treads the rising water. "She's not going to drown, is she?" I ask.

Zane shakes his head, his focus still on Rebecca. When the water is almost all the way to the ceiling, Zane flicks the switch again to stop it from rising. There's just enough space between the water and the ceiling for Rebecca to keep her face out of the water. I feel as though I'm watching a scary movie of some sort.

Zane and I watch silently as Rebecca cries into the water. She occasionally calls weakly for help. After a while her breathing starts to become ragged, and her limbs start to move quicker with panic as she grows too tired to keep herself above water. She calls for help again before taking a big breath and letting her limbs rest. Her head slips under the water and Zane presses a button to drain the water. When she realizes the water is draining, she pushes herself to stay above water until her feet can reach the floor. They finally do and she collapses onto the floor, coughing and heaving.

"Is she okay?" I whisper.

"Yeah," Zane says casually. "We push your limits, but we don't kill you. Well, we don't try to anyway."

I shake my head slowly and sigh. "As much as I'd love to watch Rebecca not do well on an exam, I want my bed." Zane looks over at me. "I want to change my clothes and sleep in my bed."

Zane nods. "Let me get somebody else to come in here and watch her real quick." He pulls out his phone. I watch Rebecca cry in the corner of the room and actually feel kind of bad for her. I shake the feeling away as Zane tells me someone will be here soon to watch her. 

A few minutes pass before someone comes to take over our watch. Zane escorts me back to my room. When we get there, I rush over to my bed and drop down onto it, hugging my pillow tightly. Zane laughs at me. "Never thought you'd miss this room, huh?" I laugh with him. "Well I'll leave you - "

"You could stay actually," I say. He raises an eyebrow at me. "If you want to. I've kind of been alone for almost two weeks in that room." He looks almost uncomfortable. "You don't have to, like, hang out with me or anything. I just want to shower and sleep. You could just sit and read."

Zane presses his lips together. "I'll send Leo," he says before turning and leaving my room.

I sigh. I guess I don't care who stays in here with me. Leo's usually the better option anyway. But now I have to be alone until he gets here. 

I set my newly acquired knife and gun down next to my books and necklace before going to take a shower. I leave the ripped fabric of my pants around my arm while I wash my hair and body. The hot water feels great as it washes away the past eleven days. After my shower, I check the bedroom for Leo, but he's still not there. I get dressed and clean my stab wound. 

I sit on my bed for a few minutes, hoping Leo will show up before I fall asleep. That test exhausted me more than I thought. I give up on waiting for company and lay down.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

When I wake up, Leo is at the foot of my bed. A laptop sits on his legs as he studies the screen, occasionally typing something. "Hey," I say.

He looks over at me and smiles. "Hey." He closes his laptop and sets it aside. "How are you feeling?"

I stretch my arms above my head. "Hungry."

He frowns. "I'm sorry about your test," he says quietly.

"It's okay, Leo," I assure him. "It's not your fault that I'm here or that I need to pass these tests. Besides that, I did pass."

"I'm proud of you," he says. "Come on. I'll take you to eat something and then we can go to the gun range so you can practice shooting. Although, from what I saw, you already have pretty good aim."

I follow him out of my room. "I honestly think those were just lucky shots. I probably need the practice."

"Then we'll get you some practice," he assures me. We reach the cafeteria and Leo follows me as we get food and sit down to eat. I only grab fruits and vegetables, knowing that I need to eat slowly but the hot food gets cold too quickly. "You're almost done with your tests, you know."

I look up at him. "Really?"

He nods. "There's only a few more left before you pass. A couple of which you'll have to do with Rebecca, so they will depend on how long she takes completing this one," he tells me.

"She's still in her torture room?" I ask.

Leo nods. "I think she's getting somewhere, though. She's started inspecting the case the necklace is in, but she hasn't thought to inspect anywhere else yet. Zane thinks she'll take at least another week."

"Well, let's hope not," I say. "I'm ready to be an agent." The thought of the tiny bit of extra freedom I'll have makes me feel almost... hopeful?

"Me, too," Leo agrees.

We finish our breakfast and stop by my room to grab my gun and knife. I opt out of the gun holster Leo finds in my closet, but I accept the leg strap that holds my knife on my thigh.

We walk to the elevator and ride it to a floor that is completely taken up by a gun range. There are a few people in here but not many. The loud noises hurt my ears, but I try to look unaffected. Leo approaches a lady at a desk and leans in close so she can hear him. She hands him two bulky headphones and he hands me a pair.

He leads the way down to an open booth and steps into it. I'm mildly surprised when Leo pulls a gun out of his inner jacket pocket. I should've assumed he had a gun since he worked here. He just seems like such a nonviolent person.

He begins talking to me about how to clean a gun, how to know when the safety is on, how to reload the gun, and other gun-related mumbo jumbo. Then he takes a few shots at one of the targets in front of our booth. Just as I was surprised that he even kept a gun on him, I am surprised with his aim. He gestures for me to take a turn, reminding me to take my time getting comfortable.

I look down at my shiny handgun. Flint. I raise him up, steadying him with both hands. We can do this, Flint. I pull the trigger, and Flint kicks back a little against my wrists and shoulders. The pain resides slightly in my stab wound, causing me to focus on my bandaged arm.

"Are you okay?" Leo shouts so I can hear him through the headphones. I nod. "We can wait until you're healed better before we do this." I look out to the target, and shake my head.

I missed where I was aiming. Not by a lot, but I definitely didn't hit the bullseye. "I want to keep practicing," I shout back before raising my arms and shooting again.

Leo stands and watches me cautiously for a while. The first time that I actually hit the bullseye, I turn to him but he's on his phone. I don't know why I expected praise from him or why my face falls when I don't receive it. He realizes I've stopped shooting and looks up at me and then to the target. He gives me a congratulatory smile. I force a smile back and then he turns his phone so I can read the screen. It shows a text from Zane:

Rebecca finished her test.

I press my lips together. I don't know why I feel so competitive against her. I've beaten her at both tests we've taken together so far, but I find myself irritated at how close she is to matching me.

Leo gives me a questioning look, but I simply turn around and continue firing at the target.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

The following days, Leo escorts me to the gun range and the gym. He hovers everywhere we go. I know I'm not allowed to go anywhere without him, but sometimes I wish he could just keep an eye on me from afar.

I keep my knife strapped to my leg everywhere I go simply because I like how it looks, and I bring my gun everywhere with me too. It seems like everyone else carries a weapon with them, and Zane said they were mine.

Only a few days pass before the morning of my next exam. Leo takes me to the gun range and leads me into a small room. It's another room that looks like an interrogation room. Zane is seated on one side of the table and Leo takes the seat next to him. I sit across from them and Leo hands me a written test about gun safety. It doesn't take long to complete. Then we leave the room and they assess my accuracy on the targets. 

When I've finished shooting and we re-enter the quiet of the elevator, Leo says, "Okay, it's still early. Rebecca has already taken this test, and the next one you two have to take together." Zane, who has been strangely quiet all day, looks over at us. "If you want, we can have her and Johnathon meet us for that test right now."

I sigh. "Let's get this over with."

Zane smiles and presses the button for the gym floor. When we get there, Leo hangs back to call Johnathon and I follow Zane to the back of the gym and into a large, open room. I stay near the door as Zane walks over to a rack of what look like pool cues. He takes one down and examines it. He speaks without looking up. "Why did you kill your dad?"

"Is this part of the test?" I joke. He looks up, but doesn't seem amused. I drop my voice down quieter even though no one is here to hear me except for Zane. "He used to touch me. I was scared of him. I didn't like being afraid."

Zane nods and hesitates before speaking again. "This test is combat," he tells me, changing the subject. He turns to hang the pool cue back on the wall. "Hand to hand. Johnathon, Leo, and I will assess how you and Rebecca do in an actual fight. There are technically no winners to this, so don't let your competitive side get the better of you." I frown. "Pay attention to any signs of weakness she might show, and play to your strengths."

"Strengths?" I scoff.

Zane rolls his eyes. Clearly he isn't in a joking mood today. "You're smarter than she is, and - in my opinion - you are better agent material than she is." His honesty surprises me, and I get that strange feeling again from him complimenting me. He opens his mouth to speak again, but the door opens behind me and he stops himself.

Leo, Johnathon, and Rebecca walk in. Zane walks over to stand by the men as Rebecca and I move to the middle of the floor. Rebecca looks to Johnathon. His voice is low but clear. "Combat," he tells her.

She frowns and glances at me. "You want me to fight her?" Something about the way she emphasizes her words strikes me funny. It almost sounds as if she knew she'd be fighting someone but didn't know that someone would be me.

"Scared?" I ask. I mean it as a joke, but the only person who seems to get that is Zane. He laughs for the first time today.

Rebecca seems to take this as a threat and throws the first punch. It's miscalculated, and I dodge it easily. Her failed swing coupled with Zane still chuckling at me makes me laugh. She catches me off guard while I'm laughing and punches me in the gut.

I bend over. "Shit," I breathe. She leans back on her left leg and swings her right let up toward my face. I grab her ankle and lift it, causing her to fall on the ground. I almost feel like I'm fighting a child, and it makes me laugh again.

She sneers at me and sweeps her leg out, knocking my feet out from under me. I fall to the ground, still laughing. The laughter only stops after Rebecca gets to her feet and kicks me hard in my side. "Oh, shit." I roll across the room and jump to my feet.

She barrels toward me. Find her weakness. I adjust my fighting stance and when she's close enough, I throw my fist into her left boob. She stumbles backward, clutching her chest. "Ow," she whines as if she can't believe one girl would hit another girl in the boob.

I'm vaguely aware of Zane laughing loudly on the other side of the room, but I try to stay focused. Rebecca lunges for me. I quickly block her and let my left fist collide with her cheekbone. I'm surprised I hit so well with my non-dominant hand.

She turns and walks away from me, and I mercifully give her a minute to recover. She wipes some blood from her nose onto her white sleeve and turns back toward me. Her hand twitches as she flicks open a knife. I whip my knife out, giving her a look that assures her I'm not afraid.

"No weapons," Johnathon bellows.

Rebecca and I keep our eyes locked on each other and hesitate before tossing our knives to the side. She turns around and grabs one of the pool cues from behind her. I follow her lead, grabbing one from the wall behind me. She starts running toward me, and I do the same toward her. Right before we cross paths, I swerve to the side, holding my pool cue to the side to clothesline her. I continue to the other side of the room, fighting another laugh.

She lays on the floor coughing. That definitely knocked the wind out of her. 

"Get up," Johnathon commands.

Rebecca shoots him an angry look that I wouldn't have thought she was capable of before standing up. She runs at me again, her pool cue aimed high. I duck under it, but she quickly spins it and rails me in the spine with the blunt end.

I fall to the floor, coughing. Fuck. I stand back up and turn to face her again. As we make a run at each other again, I hear Zane yell to Rebecca, "Hit her in her stab wound!"


	16. Chapter Sixteen

"Stop," Johnathon says sternly. I freeze with my staff inches from Rebecca's throat. Her pool cue lays on the floor a few feet away. I take my foot off of her stomach and back up a few feet, dropping my pool cue to the floor. I keep my eyes on Rebecca, but she just stares up at the ceiling. She looks like she's trying not to cry. "Rebecca."

She looks over at Johnathon, and he gestures for her to follow him as he exits the room. She shoots one last glare at me before pushing herself off of the floor and leaving the room. When I look over to the guys, Leo is writing on a clipboard and Zane is sitting on the floor reading. As I walk over to them, Zane folds the corner of the page he's on and stands up. As Leo smiles at me, Zane pushes a cupboard to open and tosses me a water bottle. 

I drink half of it before speaking. "So now what?" I ask.

Leo tucks the clipboard under his arm. "Well you only have one more test left."

"Okay, let's do it. What is it? I'm ready."

Zane retrieves my knife from the floor and hands it to me. "You need to rest," he tells me as I slide the knife into my thigh strap.

"Seriously?" I ask. "You're the one always pushing me to take the next test as soon as possible. What gives?"

Zane rolls his eyes. "Your last test also includes Rebecca," he tells me. "You may not need any rest, but I think she does." I scoff. "You kicked her ass today, Marie."

Leo swats Zane's arm with the clipboard, and I try to hide my smile by taking a drink of water. "Marie," he says, holding his hand out to me. I drop my hand into his and we walk out of the room without Zane. Holding Leo's hand has become less and less strange to me. The more he reaches for it, the less I fight it.

When we get into the elevator, Leo clears his throat. "So are you still interested in letting me take you out of here once you're an agent?" he asks nervously.

His bashfulness makes me smile. "Yes, Leo." He smiles back in relief. "The first thing I'm going to want to do when I'm an agent is get out of here."

. . . . . . 

The next morning, when I wake up, I can't remember killing my dad. The dreams have come less frequently since confessing that I killed him. When I stretch my legs out, my feet hit something and I hear a thud. I sit up immediately to see Zane on the floor at the foot of my bed. "What are you doing?" I ask him.

He groans as he gets up, rubbing his tailbone. "Fighting the urge to put you on the floor after you kicked me out of bed," he mutters, making me laugh. "Come on. Last test today."

"Already?" I ask.

"I guess somebody said something to Rebecca about how we were just waiting on her, and she immediately decided she was ready," he tells me. I snicker. "She's just as competitive as you are."

"I'm not competitive," I deny as I lace my boots onto my feet.

Zane rolls his eyes but smiles. "Yeah, okay. Bring your gun," he adds when I stand up.

"I always do," I say as I grab both of my weapons.

I follow Zane down the hall and into the elevator. "You surprised me on your accuracy test," he admits when we exit to another hallway. "I had thought you'd just be dead weight on missions, but your aim's not so bad."

I shrug. "I practiced a lot," I say. "Besides, I'm sure Flint will be different in action."

"Flint," Zane repeats quietly. "You named your gun?" He chuckles.

"Hell yeah, I did," I laugh. "You took me away from Aspen, so I had to make a new friend."

"You and Leo seem like pretty good friends," he points out. "Here." 

He pushes aside a doorway to an empty room. Standing by the far wall are Leo, Johnathon, and the General. Zane walks over to stand with them. Rebecca stands in the middle of the room, looking uncomfortable with a gun in her hand. As I move to stand in the middle of the room with her, I pull my own gun out of the waistband of my pants, letting it rest at my side.

The General steps forwards and clears her throat. "Liabilities, you have both done well on your tests," she says in her quiet but stern voice. "You did especially well on your gun accuracy tests." I glance at Rebecca who is beaming with pride. "However, that was only targets. Do you feel that you could shoot a living, breathing person?"

"Yes, General," I say. Rebecca simply nods eagerly, but repeats my words when she realizes I gave the correct response.

The General steps back to stand in line with the men. "Prove it."

It takes only a moment for her words to click in my brain. Rebecca takes a second longer. "You want me to shoot her?" She just gets the words out as I pull the trigger on my gun.

My bullet sinks into her chest before my brain can even catch up. I can feel my jaw wanting to drop, but I hold myself together as Rebecca collapses to the floor, seemingly in slow motion. Her gun drops from her hands and her eyes are wide open staring at the ceiling. Her hand moves up to her chest and falls into the blood. Rebecca is not the first person I've killed, but she's the first person I've killed that makes me want to throw up.

"Good," The General says simply. I look over at her, and she's already looking at me. I turn my body to face her as she takes a few steps toward me. "Congratulations, Agent Lynn. You've been promoted."


	17. Chapter Seventeen

I only look at Rebecca's lifeless body for a few more minutes after The General leaves the room. Leo says my name and takes a step toward me, but I turn and exit the room. I'm an agent now. I don't need them to walk me back to my room. 

I make it all the way to the elevator before I feel a hand grab my elbow. When I turn around, I'm met with Zane's face. "Are you okay?" he asks me.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I ask him, keeping my tone even and my face blank. "She wasn't my first kill."

Zane smiles and follows me into the elevator. "It's a good front for when there's a lot of people around, but you don't have to give me that bullshit." I cross my arms over my chest and stare straight forward. "She wasn't your first kill. Your father hurt you. He was a bad man, and you knew his murder was coming. Rebecca never did anything to you, and you didn't plan her murder."

I chew on my cheek and adjust my weight to one leg. "Everybody has to kill someone?" I ask.

"Yes," Zane answers.

"You?"

"Yes."

"Leo?"

"Yes," he says. I can feel his gaze on me, but I don't look at him. "It's part of why Leo does security work instead of field missions. He doesn't like to kill."

"And you?" I ask, finally meeting his eyes.

His expression is unreadable. "I don't feel any remorse for the shots I've taken," he admits. When I turn away again, he sighs heavily. "Let me take you out of the facility for the rest of the day."

"No, I want to be alone," I say.

"More than you want to get out of here?" he questions. I don't answer, but he pushes the button for the top floor anyway. "I have some things to do. You can come with me. Besides, I want to show you something."

I stay silent, letting him break me out of this hell hole. When we climb the ladder out of the ground, the sun is high in the sky. I follow Zane east. After a long walk, we reach a carpool lot off of a highway. Zane pulls a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocks a beat up red truck. 

He opens the passenger door for me. "This seems like a downgrade," I comment.

Zane laughs and shuts the door behind me. He climbs into the driver seat and gestures to the silver truck from over a month ago. "That's Leo's truck," he tells me. "This one's mine."

I nod. He rolls both windows down after starting up the truck and pulls out of the parking lot. I want to ask where we're going, but I stay quiet. I close my eyes as the wind tosses my hair around and the sun heats my face. After a few minutes of driving, Zane turns the radio on. Through the static, I hear quiet country music playing.

I turn to look at Zane and he smiles nervously. "I grew up around it," he says of the music. He grab a pack of cigarettes from the center console and holds it up. "Want one?" I nod, and he puts two cigarettes in his mouth. He drives with his knee and light both cigarettes at once before handing me one.

I take a long drag from the stick and slowly blow the smoke out the window. "Where are we going anyway?" I ask. "You said you have something to show me."

"I do," he confirms. "First, I am going to get a tattoo. Which reminds me - no real names out here. My code name is Paul. You need to come up with one. Make it good too because you can't change it."

I nod as I take another hit from the cigarette. "Loretta," I say. He laughs. "What?"

"That's an old lady name," he tells me.

"It is not," I laugh.

He continues picking on me for my naming skills the rest of the way to the tattoo shop. It's a small building that looks like an old-time-y saloon. I follow him inside and see a large, heavily-tattooed man sitting behind a counter. When he looks up, he beams at Zane. "Paul!" He stands up and they shake hands. "How are you, brother? Who's this?"

He holds his hand out to me and I shake it as Zane answers, "This is Loretta. We work together on the farm," he tells the man. "Loretta, this is James."

"It's nice to meet you," I say politely.

"So what are you getting today?" James asks Zane. I follow them back into a small room. Every inch of the walls is covered in tattoo designs. I look them all over as the men discuss what tattoo Zane is getting. "Loretta, are you getting a tattoo today?"

"No," I say at the same time that Zane says, "She might." I give him a confused look. He waits for James to exit the room before adding quietly, "You don't get a lot of freedom in this line of work. You might like a little freedom of expression."

I press my lips together and turn back to the wall of art. When James comes back in, I turn around, wanting to watch the tattoo process. Zane's taken his shirt off. I've seen Zane's back before with the whip scars. I wonder what James thinks of them. Zane leans back in the chair and I see his chest is covered in tattoos. I had seen some poke out from his t-shirt sleeves before, but I didn't think he had so many.

I end up paying less attention to the tattoo James is currently working on and pay more attention to the tattoos already scattered across his skin. One shoulder has a knife while the other has a gun. Right over his heart is an open book with an L and an N on the pages. Some of the tattoos seem random: a smiley face, a skull, two hands joined in a pinky swear, a rose, a burning house. Just above the waistband of his jeans, there's a quote. I can't make it out with half of it covered up by his boxers.

"There you go, brother," James says, straightening up and stretching his neck and arms. Zane looks down at his stomach. James filled a blank space with a wave, an M in the middle of it. Before I can ask Zane about it, James turns to me and asks, "So, Loretta, anything for you?"

"I don't have any money," I say with a shrug.

"Yeah, you do," Zane says as he shrugs his t-shirt back on. "I just forgot to take you to the bank. I'll spot you, and you can pay me back."

I look at him, but he seems dead serious. "Yeah, okay, I'll get something."


	18. Chapter Eighteen

As Zane pays James for our tattoos, I turn my body back and forth, looking at my knew tattoos in the mirror. On my left shoulder, I got a tree for Aspen. On my right shoulder, I got a small gun and a knife for my two weapons.

"Ready?" Zane asks me, appearing behind me.

"Yeah," I say, grabbing my sweatshirt and following him out of the store. "Now we're going to whatever you wanted to show me?" I ask as he opens my door for me.

He nods and pushes the door closed behind me. When he gets behind the wheel, he lights two cigarettes and hands me one. "So does your knife have a name like Flint and Aspen?"

I look out the window, thinking up a name. "Brenda," I finally say.

Zane laughs. "It's a girl?" I laugh too and nod. He shakes his head at me.

We drive without speaking for a while. The quiet country music fills the car from the speakers and gets whisked away by the warm summer wind. We exit off of the highway and the road soon turns to gravel. 

I see what Zane is driving to before he pulls into the nearly empty lot. My jaw drops and stays that way as he puts the truck in park and turns it off. The large, familiar tree leaves me speechless.

I'm vaguely aware of Zane talking from the other side of the cab. "I, uh, had someone dig him up from the park and move him out here for you." I finally pull my eyes away from the tree to look over at Zane. "I figured you might want a friend out here that you can visit sometimes."

"You did this?" I ask. Zane seems like the last person to make such a big gesture. What is he gesturing to?

He shrugs. "I arranged it, but I didn't do any of the heavy lifting," he tells me. Before I know what I'm doing, I lean across the center console to wrap my arms around his neck. "It's not a big deal." He laughs at me and awkwardly pats my back.

I roll my eyes at him. "You wouldn't know a big deal if it bit you on the nose," I tell him, opening my door and climbing out of the truck.

I can hear Zane's steps a few feet behind me as I walk up to Aspen. I look up at him and throw my arms around his trunk, sighing in relief. "I missed you, buddy." I hear Zane chuckle and shoot him a look. "We don't need your negativity. You can wait in the truck if you're going to laugh."

His hands move between us, and I look down to see him holding out two books. One is the one from my mother that I had left in Leo's truck. The other is the same book but brand new. "You said I owed you a new book," he says, "but I figured you wouldn't want me to throw away the one from your mom."

I smile at him and take the book from my mom. "Thank you," I say. He looks at the ground awkwardly. "I can't wait to see you attempt to climb a tree again." He glares at me and I laugh.

"Shut up," he says. "Sorry I don't have a tree for a best friend." I laugh again and begin my hike up the tree. 

We lounge on Aspen's branches for a few hours reading in silence. When I set the book on my stomach and look up at the sky, Zane asks, "What's on your mind?"

"Leo wants to take me on a date now that I'm an agent." Zane's head snaps up and his expression looks angry. "What?"

He lays his head back down. "It's against the rules for agents to date," he says evenly.

I frown up at the sky. "I feel like I should've assumed that," I say. "I won't break the rules for him."

"I don't expect you to," he tells me.

"I don't want to hurt his feelings," I say quietly. When he doesn't answer, I turn to look at him but his eyes are closed.

"You don't have to hurt him, Marie," he says. He sighs and sits up on his branch. "Are you ready to head back?"

I sigh too and nod. We climb down from Aspen and walk back to the truck. We drive back to the parking lot wordlessly, and the walk back to the facility is the same. In the elevator, Zane presses the button for my floor and rides with me. When the elevator doors open to my floor, I step out. "Congratulations, Agent Lynn," Zane says.

I turn around to smile at him. "Thanks, Agent..." I trail off as I realize I don't know his last name.

"Graff," he tells me just before the elevator door closes.

I turn back around to walk to my room. Zane Graff. I feel like I finally have some insight into Zane. I know nearly nothing about him, but at least now I have a last name.

When I reach my room, I'm surprised that it looks different. There's a large TV across from my bed and desk in the opposite corner. On top of the desk is a cellphone and a plastic card. I pick up the cellphone to find it full of contacts. Leo and Zane are both among the list. I assume it's my way to contact the other agents if necessary. The card is black and sleek with my name embossed in the plastic. This must be for the money Zane said that I had.

I flick through the phone and find a bank app. When I get on it, it's already logged into an account with my name on it. My jaw drops at the numbers on the screen: $3,500.00.


End file.
